Julie Ela Grace: Yoga, Meditation, Coaching & Creativity

23/01/2025

Happy New Year! -

✨ Happy New Year, Everyone! ✨ Dear all, It feels like so long--too long--since I've seen most of you, though I wanted to send a little email anyway, mainly to say happy new year and that I miss you! I hope that 2025 gives each of you every opportunity to share your unique light with the worl...

19/09/2024

Three Restorative Sessions -

It's been amazing to practice with a few of you again on Thursday afternoons at the beautiful Vishuddha Yoga Centre, just off Botley Road. 🌸 Thank you! I'm just popping in again to quickly let you know that I actually have three restorative yoga sessions coming up on Friday evenings at Vishuddha...

17/09/2024

Again, it's uncomfortable... and it's uncomfortable because it's wrong... and it needs to stop.

An emotional account from Italian tourists details their shock and heartbreak as they unwittingly witnessed the brutal slaughter of pilot whales in the Faroe Islands, known as the "grind." Their words, shared with the Sea Shepherd Global campaign crew, reveal the deep impact this encounter had on th...

06/09/2024

New Thursday Class! -

I’m starting a new lunchtime yoga class every Thursday from 12-1pm at the wonderful Vishuddha Yoga Centre, just off Botley Road. 🌸 We start this Thursday, 12 September (after a little hiccup and my inability to start yesterday due, predictably, to childcare issues!). Please note, I will be away...

27/08/2024

Delighted to let you all know that I have a new lunchtime yoga class starting on Thursdays at the amazing Visuddha Yoga Centre off Botley Road from 12-1pm from 5 September.

Autumn schedule and upcoming events Vishuddha Yoga Centre, 16 East St, Osney Island, OX2 0AU Visit our Website for more details Join us for Oxford 'Open Doors' 14th & 15th September Come and visit us

26/07/2024

France's fast fashion bill takes aim at retail behemoths lawmakers argue damage the environment, hurt the economy and feed impulse buyers.

25/07/2024

Please contact your Danish embassy and urge them to free Paul Watson. 💔

Allies of the 73-year-old anti-whaling activist Paul Watson have said that prison time would amount to a ‘life sentence’

18/07/2024

For most of my life, I didn’t want a child. This was influenced by a variety of factors, including childhood trauma and a general fear about the planet’s future. Yet, my perspective began to shift in my early 30s and then everything changed after meeting Antonio. My body and mind wholeheartedly told me that they wanted a baby!

Yet, my mind and body were also cluttered with remnants of the past, including the damning fertility prognosis frequently given to women over the age of 35 (which is highly oversimplified). I became anxious and as I did in the past, I had to dig deep into my yoga and meditation practices, while likewise gaining a sense of agency through research and holistic modalities.

After experiencing a miscarriage, I intuitively knew something was wrong, though in Oxfordshire, the NHS is unable to help you if you are over age 35 (more on this in another post, as this is a slightly simplified statement). Private healthcare in Britain is incredibly expensive, so I was fortunate in that I could turn to a private gynaecologist in Italy. She was able to very quickly alert me to what was a highly fixable issue and within two months, I conceived our beautiful daughter who is now almost 16 months old.

After my cancer diagnosis and treatment twenty years ago, I became deeply interested in both medicine and holistic health practices, and this led me to pursue my master’s degree in medical humanities, as well as my yoga teacher training, and subsequently, I remain passionate about the intersections between western medicine and other wellness modalities. I am truly grateful that my background allows me to understand the science and offer best practices to my clients.

With this being said, my new website launches next week where you will find my updated offerings in yoga, fertility coaching, EMDR and general wellness coaching. I am truly passionate about helping others on their journeys, and in particular, on their fertility journeys. For five years, I also had the privilege of partnering with a fertility clinic, where I helped clients achieve positive results, both in terms of pregnancy and improved mental health.

Navigating the sea of conflicting information online about fertility and conception can be overwhelming. I want to help clients untangle this information. There are incredible holistic methods to enhance fertility, as well as powerful medical approaches. It’s essential to have the right information and support.

After having my beautiful daughter, my work life shifted dramatically as I'm no longer able to work on health retreats abroad or teach as many yoga classes as I once did. This natural progression in my career truly led me to discover this passion for fertility coaching, especially after helping so many friends and private clients in the last two years with their fertility journeys.

So, you’ll start seeing more fertility-related content from me, and I’m excited to share my knowledge and experience to support you on your journey. 💖

(Just to clarify, this photo is from when I was 8 months pregnant with Giada—I’m not pregnant right now! 😂😅)

18/07/2024

I'm thrilled to share that my top-rated audio course on Insight Timer, "Applying the Yamas & Niyamas to Everyday Life," is now available on Teachable! 🌿✨

This course offers practical ways of incorporating this ancient wisdom of Yamas and Niyamas into your daily routine, helping you to live a more balanced and fulfilling life.

🎉 Special Offer 🎉
The first 50 people to sign up will receive 50% off with the code FIRSTFIFTY. Don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your spiritual practice and transform your life!

👉 Sign Up Now

Thank you for your continued support. I can't wait to see you in the course!

With gratitude,
Julie 💖

Embark on a transformative journey where you'll learn to integrate ancient yogic principles into your daily routines, fostering a life of balance, ethical integrity, and personal growth.

05/07/2024

🌊✨ Exciting News! ✨🌊

Some of you may remember that I was set to publish my children's book, The Sea and His Sons, with a small publisher 10-15 years ago. Unfortunately, the publisher collapsed, and the book was never released.

But… good news! After the story's success as an audio tale on Insight Timer, where it received an outpouring of love and multiple requests for a printed version, I've decided to revive it through self-publishing!

📖 About the Book: Join the sea's four sons on an enchanting journey as they explore the world's beauty and discover the true meaning of connection and love. Each page is brought to life with stunning oil-based illustrations that capture the essence of nature's magic.

🌟 Why Your Support Matters: Your support will help us bring this heartwarming story to life. By signing up for our Indiegogo pre-launch, you'll get exclusive access to early bird discounts and special rewards.

👉 Sign Up Here for Early Access and Discounts to the Crowdfunding Launch:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/--2902727/coming_soon/x/37934339

Together, we can make The Sea and His Sons a reality and share its magic with young readers everywhere. Thank you for being a part of this journey!

📢 Please share this post with your friends and family to help spread the word!

15/05/2024

New Classes! -

Hello again, all! I hope you're all doing well. I'm missing so many of you and still saddened by my current inability to teach Sunday mornings. However, I'm excited to announce a new regular class starting this week: Kripalu Yoga Thursdays 6-7pm @ Yoga Venue in Summertown Booking via the studio webs...

15/04/2024

Arnold for the win again:

You might have seen headlines that the United States is no longer one of the top 20 happiest countries in the world. We fell from 15th last year to 23rd this year.

You might think, “Well, duh, things are more expensive.” But I don’t think it is that simple. You have to take a global view — inflation is not a United States phenomenon. In fact, there is higher inflation in many countries that are happier than we are.

We have to really take a deep look and think about what is going on here if we are going to do anything about it.

The youngest generation of adults, Generation Z, is fueling the decline in happiness. When you dive into their answers, you can start to see what is going on.

I always believe in focusing on the positive. So, let’s look at the happy Gen Zers to see how everyone might increase their happiness just a little.

Approximately 64 percent of Gen Z who say they are happy also say that what they do at work or school is important. They have a purpose. They have a vision. They know why they are doing what they are doing.

Gen Z’s happiness is not based on how much money they make like many of the older generations — it is based on the impact they feel they are having. I want to congratulate them because this is a fantastic way to measure true success.

They also find happiness in community — when they feel supported or loved, they are twice as likely to be happy.

When I see a decline in happiness over the past decade, though, I can’t help but see the obvious.

When I went to restaurants 15 years ago, they were loud. Every table was buzzing with conversation. People were connecting, sharing, and laughing.

When I go to restaurants now, it’s much more quiet. It can feel like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie after they wipe out most of the population. But when I look around, there are just as many people at the tables. They’re just mostly looking down at the table at their phones instead of across the table at their friends, coworkers, or family.

Members of Gen Z spend an average of 7 hours a day on their phones. SEVEN HOURS.

Our machines can be great tools. I use my machine to FaceTime with my elementary school friends in Austria and to stay in touch with my family while working and traveling. I use it to play chess with friends all over the world, track my steps every day, and read important briefings for my policy work.

But the machines can also be a trap, and I don’t think it can be a coincidence that happiness is declining in the group looking at a screen instead of the world for 7 hours every day.

I believe that for many people, the machines become a replacement for purpose. They don’t have time to figure out their vision for making a difference in their world, so they aren’t sure why they are doing what they are doing.

So they open up their phone.

On that screen, they can find all of the important news of the day in real-time, second by second. They can feel like they are part of every important thing happening in the world. But it’s a mirage. They aren’t part of anything.

Does reading and commenting about the news of the day do anything to change the news and make the world a better place? Of course not, so that empty feeling continues. I think this is why you see people who became online “experts” on COVID immediately become experts on Ukraine and now the Middle East. You see this happening to people on all sides of the political spectrum.

It’s wanna-be syndrome. They want to be involved. They want to have purpose. But their phone will never be where they find it.

For most of us, let’s be honest. It doesn’t make a difference if we see the news about Iran in real-time or the next day in the newspaper. So stop it.

All you’re doing is taking yourself away from the things that can actually make you happy. It is a 1-2 punch.

Those 7 hours a day on the phone are 7 hours you could spend working and daydreaming to find your purpose. Every time you look down at your phone instead of looking across a table at someone else, you deny yourself a chance at community.

Go for a walk. Get out of that virtual world that offers you very little into the real world that offers you everything. Find your purpose. Maybe it is teaching youth sports. Maybe it is being a doctor. Maybe it is building houses. Whatever it is, you won’t find it on your machine. You’ll only find what other people are saying you should do. You need to find your own vision and stop following strangers.

And when you do that, you’ll find other people who share your purpose. You will have a community.

20/03/2024

Beautiful. In the Ram Dass newsletter today:

I was at a meditation retreat, and we hadn't started the retreat yet, and we could all talk for just a few minutes before the retreat began. And I said to the fellow who was in one of the other bunks in the room, "What do you do?" And he said, "I'm a vice president of a bank in San Francisco, in charge of industrial loans." And he said, "But it's an interesting story. I was a vice president in a San Francisco bank in charge of industrial loans ten years ago. And then I couldn't handle it anymore, and I dropped out, and I left the job, and I went off and I took a lot of acid, and I wrote poetry, and I lived in communes, and I did that for about eight years."

And he said, "Then one day I was walking through San Francisco, and I met the president of the bank. And he said, 'Gee, isn't it amazing that I met you today? It turns out that your desk is open again, and you were the best vice president of industrial loans we ever had. Would you consider coming back?' And I thought, 'Why not?' So I shaved off my beard, and I got my tie, and the whole thing, and I went to work."

So I asked him, "Well, is it any different?" He said, "It's entirely different! Before, I used to be a vice president in charge of industrial loans. Now I'm a being that goes to this place, and I hang out with people all day long. And we're together – and the vehicle for us to be together is industrial loans."

So instead of hating the job because of his identification, he's now seeing it as a vehicle. And if you can think of a less appealing vehicle from the spiritual point of view, I would find it hard – because people come wanting something from you very materially. And yet in every situation is the opportunity to meet living spirit if you are looking with those eyes that see.

06/02/2024

So much good stuff in this one--from anxiety to nanoplastics to the correlation between fat loss and sleep.

If you tend to worry and it causes anxiety and doubt, research suggests a form of meditation can be just as effective as prescription medication.

30/01/2024

Truly love Arnold's newsletter.... In the most recent edition:

We frequently discuss all the benefits of walking. But you can make an important mistake when going for a stroll.

Research suggests that using your phone while walking can increase stress and decrease mood.

Most research shows that walking helps you increase your heart rate and makes you happier and more positive. In a bizarre twist, those who went on outdoor walks while using their phone wiped out almost all the typical benefits of exercise.

Walking while glued to your phone can decrease your heart rate, make you feel less comfortable, more negative, less connected to nature, and even experience worse posture (keeping your head down on your phone is not good for your gait.)

Another study suggests that using your phone while walking increases stress levels.

As Arnold says, “Put the machine away!” There are many good uses for phones and a time for social media. But when you’re exercising, it is not the right time. Don’t forget that prior studies found that scrolling social media before a workout can make you weaker and lead to more mental fatigue.

25/01/2024

HEALTHY LIES is a documentary feature that examines a mystery, buried by hush money: how does the United States spend twice as much on health compared to any...

20/01/2024

Odessa · Album · 2022 · 8 songs.